Programs feature Marty Stuart, Ry Cooder, Billy Joe Shaver  and more

NASHVILLE, Tenn., August 18, 2014 – The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum will offer a schedule of top-shelf events in conjunction with the 15th annual Americana Music Festival and Conference, slated for September 17-21, 2014, in Nashville. The museum’s Americana-week programs feature legends who have influenced generations of roots music practitioners, in presentations seamlessly melding education and entertainment.

Events include in-depth interviews with quintessential Southern sage Marty Stuart, and slide guitar/multi-instrumentalist pioneer Ry Cooder; a red-letter Songwriter Session, with stories and songs from peerless hardscrabble poet Billy Joe Shaver; and a concert featuring leaders of Nashville’s ’90s hardcore honky-tonk resurgence BR549, Paul Burch, Greg Garing, R.B. Morris and more.

Dates, times, admission guidelines and additional information are included in the detailed schedule below.

“The Americana Music Association and Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum share a core mission: to elevate and preserve American roots music,” said Kyle Young, museum director. “To that end, we are especially proud of the caliber of events we’ll contribute to AmericanaFest this year. Marty Stuart, Ry Cooder, Billy Joe Shaver, and the beloved Lower Broad class of ’94—you’d be hard-pressed to find a comparable assemblage of greatness anytime, anywhere.”

THE SCHEDULE
  

Thursday, September 18                                        1:00 p.m.
Interview: Marty Stuart with Scott Goldman
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Ford Theater
Marty Stuart grew up in Mississippi listening to the local radio station.  He has called WHOC “one thousand watts of pure pleasure.”  For over forty years the five-time GRAMMY-winning multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, photographer and historian has taken the essence of all that he heard—country, gospel, rock, soul—and become a messenger for the true sound of country music. His soon-to-be-released double album Saturday Night & Sunday Morning provides the perfect backdrop for a conversation with GRAMMY Foundation and MusiCares Vice President Scott Goldman about his legendary career and the influence of his Mississippi roots. Presented in partnership with The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and Visit Mississippi.

Friday, September 19                                              1:00 p.m.
Interview: Ry Cooder with Barry Mazor
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Ford Theater
Extraordinary slide guitarist, producer, composer, and roots music champion Ry Cooder has played a central role in shaping American music for nearly fifty years. He has added prized string textures to the records of everyone from Rodney Crowell to the Rolling Stones, Phil Ochs to Pop Staples, Bobby Bare to Captain Beefheart.  His groundbreaking solo albums of the 1970s introduced flavor after flavor of American and world roots music to pop and rock audiences, while demonstrating that the exploration was allowed to be fun. His soundtracks for such films as The Long Ryders, Streets of Fire, and Paris, Texas; his Grammy-winning production of the historic Buena Vista Social Club sessions; his production of recent records by Mavis Staples and the Haden Triplets; and his own pointed, often political records of this decade, have added to his remarkable legacy. Music journalist and author Barry Mazor will lead Cooder in a one-on-one conversation. Included with museum admission. Free to museum members and AMA badge-holders. Limited seating. Program pass required.

Saturday, September 20                                         Noon
Songwriter Session: Billy Joe Shaver
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Ford Theater
Johnny Cash, Tom T. Hall, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and Willie Nelson—great songwriters all—each have recorded several Billy Joe Shaver songs over the years. That speaks to Shaver’s top-rank standing among Country Music Hall of Fame® artists: His songs pack an emotional punch, all told in a colorful language all of his own. Shaver’s best-known songs -“Georgia on a Fast Train,” “Honky Tonk Heroes,” “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal,” “Live Forever,” “You Asked Me To” - represent the pinnacle of hard-knuckled, open-hearted Texas songwriting. Shaver’s new album, Long in the Tooth, is yet another honky-tonk gem. Presented in partnership with the Americana Music Association. Included with museum admission. Free to museum members and AMA badge-holders. Limited seating. Program pass required.

Saturday, September 20                                         2:00 p.m.
20th Anniversary of Lower Broadway renaissance
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, CMA Theater
When the Opry moved to the suburbs in 1974, Nashville’s Broadway (commonly known as Lower Broad) began to succumb to the forces of urban decay. But in a July 1995 Billboard cover story, Chet Flippo wrote about a “new scene” that had “developed on its own in Music City.” Encouraged by the 1994 opening of the remodeled Ryman Auditorium, progressive, tradition-based country artists like BR549, Paul Burch, Greg Garing, R.B. Morris, and others moved into the honky-tonks of Lower Broad to create that scene, eventually inspiring a downtown renaissance that continues today. Those musicians will perform and share stories of the heady days of 1994 on the twentieth anniversary of the Lower Broad revival. Presented in partnership with the Americana Music Association. Included with museum admission. Free to museum members and AMA badge-holders. Limited seating. Program pass required.

These programs are made possible, in part, by grants from the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission and by an agreement between the Tennessee Arts Commission and National Endowment for the Arts. 

About the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum:
Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is operated by the Country Music Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964. The museum’s mission is the preservation of the history of country and related vernacular music rooted in southern culture. With the same educational mission, the foundation also operates CMF Records, the museum’s Frist Library and Archive, CMF Press, Historic RCA Studio B and Hatch Show Print®.

More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is available at countrymusichalloffame.org or by calling (615) 416-2001.

About the Americana Music Association:
The 15th annual Americana Music Festival & Conference, presented by Nissan, will take place September 17-21, 2014, in Nashville, Tenn., kicked off by the 13th annual Americana Honors & Awards Show on Sept. 17 at the historic Ryman Auditorium. The Americana Music Association is a professional non-profit trade organization whose mission is to advocate for the authentic voice of American roots music around the world. The association produces events throughout the year including the annual Americana Music Festival and Conference, presented by Nissan, and the critically acclaimed Americana Honors & Awards program. The Americana Music Association has doubled its Festival and Conference attendance over the last five years, been instrumental in the addition of three new Grammy categories in the American Roots Field, and partnered with Lincoln Center for "Americanafest NYC"  — a week of Americana music and film during Lincoln Center's Out Of Doors programming (Aug. 4 - Aug. 10).    The New York Times says the Americana Music Association savors a "spirit of eclecticism” and calls its Nashville Music Festival and Conference  “a smaller, rootsier version of South by Southwest.”  For more information, please visit www.americanamusic.org.

- 30 -